Translating German Administrative Law: The Case of Finland

Abstract

The language of comparative law is replete with terms referring to ways in which legal norms and ideologies move. While an overview of these is not appropriate in this article, I will take up one recent suggestion that I find particularly illuminating. Maximo Langer has proposed the term »legal translation«, through which he hopes to highlight the fact that legal norms rarely remain unchanged when they are taken over by another legal system. Legal norms need to be adjusted to their new legal, social, political, economic and cultural environments. The »translator« of the norm, legal institution or legal ideology does, in fact, much of the same work as a translator (or a reader) of a novel or a poem. When works of literature are read or translated by a person belonging to another cultural sphere, the original texts assume different meanings – although their essential meanings will often remain the same. »Legal practices and institutions may be transformed«, Langer emphasizes, »when translated between legal systems either because of the decisions of the reformers (translators) or structural differences between the original and receiving legal systems (languages).« This article is about »translating« a particular legal ideology from German into Finnish law. As practically everywhere in the West, Germany was the primary source of legal reception in late nineteenth-century Finland. In this text I look at a group of »legal translators« who imported a package of German legal ideas into the Finnish legal landscape. The package of ideas that I address is called »administrative law« (German: Verwaltungsrecht; Swedish: forvaltningsratt; Finnish: hallinto-oikeus). I show that the »heroes« of this story – Robert Hermanson (1846–1928), Leo Mechelin (1839–1914) and K. J. Stahlberg (1865–1952), all politicians and professors of law – did was not merely import foreign ideas into their own country, they also carefully mapped these ideas onto a different political environment. 267